Random use of metal detectors effective at Pleasant Valley

Pleasant Valley School District for about 15 years has been implementing random metal detector checks on the students in the middle, intermediate and high schools.

CHAD SMITH

Pleasant Valley School District for about 15 years has been implementing random metal detector checks on the students in the middle, intermediate and high schools.

The checks have been effective, according to Chris Fisher, assistant to the superintendent.

"The kids never know when they're going to get checked, so it really helps," said Fisher.

The district has never once discovered a gun on a student. Scissors and body spray are the items most often discovered.

The system works like this, Fisher said:

At random mornings during the week, the district puts up metal detectors at different entrances of the school buildings. The students never know on which day the metal detectors will be used or at which entrances.

In addition, an official also sometimes walks into a class at random and tells all the students that they must go through a detector. This way, if a knife or a gun was snuck into the school during the day, the person still gets caught.

It takes about 15 minutes to run a class through the metal detectors.

Fisher said that even though the metal detectors — the district has five in total — might cause a little inconvenience, most students like the metal detectors because they make them feel safe.

Every two years the district sends out a safety survey to the students. In the last survey, Fisher said 92 percent of the students in the district said they felt safe in school.

Fisher said that the district will continue to use the metal doctors as a safety measure. It has spent about $7,500 on the devices.